Insurer Aviva deemed to have lowest emissions

British insurance giant Aviva has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions out of Europe’s 300 biggest companies, research said today.

The London-based insurer topped the Europe 300 Carbon Ranking, published by the Environmental Investment Organisation (EIO) and was joined in the top 10 by fellow insurer RSA and investment firm Man Group.

But British cruise ship operator Carnival, which owns P&O Cruises, and London-based oil and gas drilling firm Ensco featured in the bottom 10 firms, which have the highest carbon emissions.

The EIO, a UK-based independent non-profit research body, ranks companies on their public reporting of emissions.

The top three non-financial companies were Switzerland’s leading telecoms provider Swisscom, followed by Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia, and broadcasting giant BSkyB.

Sam Gill, EIO operational director, said: “Despite most companies producing corporate social responsibility reports there remains a remarkable lack of transparency and clarity in Greenhouse Gas emissions reporting.”

The director said the rankings gave the public access to emissions data in an understandable format in one place, highlighting “the leaders and laggards”.